Next time you’re shopping, take a look at the list of ingredients. The amount of additives, flavorings, stabilizers and colorants can be quite shocking.

So what’s the alternative? Surely there has to be an easier way to get better breath and keep your mouth in good shape.

Well the great news is that you can make your own homemade mouthwash, which contains all the key active ingredients of off-the-shelf products, but for a fraction of the cost and much more safe.

The Requirements For a Great Homemade Mouthwash

Having said how awful the industrially produced solutions are, you have to ask the next question which is why do they make them taste and look that way in the first place?

The reason is that people associate certain colors with cleanliness and medicine. They also like certain tastes and feelings. It’s conditioned from what we are used to. So any diy mouthwash has to emulate this.

For me, the requirements in making a great mouthwash recipe are:

It must taste and smell fresh, preferably minty. You could try other taste combinations, but most people don’t associate those with cleaning their mouth and teeth.

It must not taste sour. It mustn’t taste sweet either, but an ever so slightly sweet taste is preferable to something that leaves you feeling a bit sick or is unpalatable in the mouth.

If possible it should be able to whiten the teeth as well. This is one of the harder parts of the natural mouthwash to achieve because you are reliant either on abrasion or a chemical that bleaches the top layer of your teeth.

Cavity protection is something else that you should try and build into a homemade mouth wash.

How to Make Mouthwash: 3 Homemade Recipes

So now we know the requirements of making a great organic mouthwash, and what we are trying to avoid, let’s look at what I think are three perfect diy recipes.

1. Classic homemade mouthwash recipe

For me this recipe will achieve the goals I laid out previously. It tastes nice, as a mouthwash should and it can protect against cavities, while having a slight whitening effect. And the great news is it’s incredibly cheap to make.

To create this home-made mouthwash, simply add all the ingredients into a bottle and shake thoroughly, it’s that simple. If you want a slightly sweeter solution, add a drop or two of liquid stevia to taste.

The key ingredients here are the aloe vera juice, which can reduce inflammation and bleeding of the gums, and the baking soda, which can help to neutralize acids that cause bad breath.

3. Apple cider vinegar mouthwash

This recipe may sound horrible, swilling mouth out with vinegar is not a great idea you might think. But apple cider vinegar is actually added to a lot of commercial oral products because it has antibacterial qualities, so let’s put them to use.

Benefit From Additive Free, Natural Mouthwash!

There is no alcohol (alcohol can dry out the mouth and cause ulcers) [source]

There are no additives

There are no harmful chemicals

The recipe combinations are endless

it costs a fraction of the price of shop-purchased mouthwash

As you have already seen a lot of these ingredients are common to the three recipes I have put together.

But there are literally dozens of other ingredients you can use, such as Glycerin for sweetening, as it does not allow bacteria in the mouth to feed off it, and it does not raise blood sugar levels.

You could even try adding up to 3% volume of hydrogen peroxide solution. The FDA allow up to 3% hydrogen peroxide in commercial mouthwash products, so you could take advantage of that if you want enhanced cavity fighting ability.

At the end of the day as long as you choose natural ingredients that are proven to help, it’s really easy to design your own blend. The key point is that it has to freshen the mouth, have the ingredients that can whiten teeth, prevent cavities and fight bacteria.